A splendidly illustrated history of a beloved cultural building type, Theaters takes us on a visual journey from the early playhouse to the modern movie mulitplex as they developed in colonial America, on the western frontier, and in cities from coast to coast. The first comprehensive study of American theaters to plumb the great holdings of the Library of Congress, Theaters showcases the wide range of architectural forms--from raucous music halls to vaudeville, from circus to grand opera and drama, from World's Fair to Coney Island, from nickelodeon to glorious picture palace. Packed with archival photographs and plans, Theaters includes special "interludes" of theater photography by such renowned artists as Walker Evans, Ben Shahn, Dorothea Lange, and Marion Post Wolcott, as well as the complete Library collection of drawings by Anthony F. Dumas, published in its entirety for the first time.

Captions to the nearly 1200 illustrations furnish relevant information and the Library of Congress call number for every image. Theaters is an invaluable and compelling visual resource, offering the largest single source of material for theater enthusiasts interested in the history and evolution of an iconic architectural type, as well as for architects, architectural historians, and preservationists engaged in designing, renovating, or rehabilitating theaters today.

The accompanying CD-ROM contains high-quality downloadable TIFF files of all the illustrations, several in color. It offers a direct link to the Library's online, searchable catalogs and image files, including the hundreds of thousands of high-resolution photographs, measured drawings, and data files in the Historic American Buildings Survey, Historic American Engineering Record, and other collections.

Author/Creator: Craig Morrison

Published by: W.W. Norton in association with the Library of Congress

Description: Hardcover, 8.5" x 11", 352 pages, 1180 illustrations, CD-ROM included: screen resolutions scans in easy-to-use TIFF format for Mac and PC

ISBN: 0-393-73108-1

Price: $75.00

Availability: Usually ships in 3-5 business days

Product #: 21107051